@buddytaller wrote:I would rather have Mata returning to Madrid over Thiago, he looks like another Robinho to me, he's Brazillian and hyped beyond his abilities, don't think he would come to Real Madrid anyway if he is looking for regular playing time. The midfield is stuffed and the pressure to succeed is huge, the perfect recipe for a young hyped player to flop.

He may also turn out to be a Giovanni dos Santos, another of Brazilian roots and who left Barcelona in search of more playing time after an enormous hype, he ended up wasting his time at Tottenham on loans, sometimes to the lower leagues of England.

The risks for me outweighs any positives of this move both for the player and for Real Madrid, I don't think he is ready to make that jump from youth football to the pressure cooker that Real Madrid is. And so was Canales, the present condition at the club is not suitable for nurturing young talents, unless they learn to deal with such pressures very early in their professional careers.

babun1024 wrote:First, you still disregard his argument that Thiago never set his foot in Brazil Second, Thiago is a lot more versatile and plays deeper than Canales. He'll definiatly see more playing time than him. we tried Canales+Granero+ Lass last year in midfield and he failed. Maybe, he needs time to develop but at the moment he isn#t ready to play deeper...

Are you sure he has never stepped foot in Brazil? What does he do on his holidays, he has Brazilian genes and that makes him as Brazilian as Messi is Argentinian. Or is he Italian?

Well Canales was just as versatile at Santander, that season all the noise was about him and not Thiago. Just like Bojan and Dos Santos, these talented kids are very delicate, when exposed to the wrong stimulus they can turn out quite bad.

They need to develop in an environment where every mistake they make is not overscrutinized and overanalysed by the media. It is this sort of attention to details, that make us believe players like Benzema and Higuain are inferior to Aguero, the fact is that Aguero plays for Atletico where the need to perform is not as great as Madrid, he can go on a 10 match scoreless streak without the media and the fans of the club calling him a flop. That was why Benzema was flawless at Lyon but seen by many as a flop in Madrid, the same reason why Villa is considered a flop for scoring just 2 goals in his last 15 matches or so for Barcelona.

The bottom line for me is that Canales was better than Thiago when he was at Racing, in Madrid it is a different story. Thiago is not ready yet in my opinion to make the jump, I've seen him play, he often tends to overdo things, pretending to be the new Ronaldinho and trying to pull off "no-look" passes. He is still a kid and is not ready for the pressure that would come with moving from Barcelona to a bigger rival club. The best thing for him is to make the most of the little time he would get at Barcelona or get a loan to a smaller club.